Athletes, travelers, and field support personnel often need to bring their water or fluid supply along as they conduct their daily activities. Hydration devices such as bladders, pouches, portable containers, or personal hydration systems such as the CamelBak™ or the Hydrastorm™ Hydration Pak are most often used to conveniently transport the water or fluid supply. These devices generally provide a container for holding the water or fluid supply as well as an attachment, such as a hose or bite valve, with which the user can draw on or suck on to extract the water or fluid supply.
These portable hydration devices range in size and shape from beverage pouches, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,005,150 or 6,065,651, and small water bottles, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,087 up to backpack sized sport hydration systems such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,298 and Published Patent Application US 2004/0262331 A1.
Attempts have been made to extend the volume of liquids that can be carried by providing multiple water carrying compartments such shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,858.
Additionally attempts have been made to provide for dispensing multiple liquids simultaneously or solutions such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,360,144,. 7,328,729, 7,306,117,and 5,799,873.
Devices such as bite valves see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,601,207, 6,062,435, and 7,311,231 provide the mouthpiece or output device for drinking from the portable hydration devices.
One major drawback when using existing devices such as bites valves and other portable hydration devices is that fluid in the reservoirs of these devices can become contaminated when there is backflow into the reservoirs. For example, if the bite valve retains a portion of fluid after usage, the retained fluid may flow back into the reservoir and cause contamination.
Further, when users add additives to the reservoirs of generally known portable hydration systems, the entire hydration system must be thoroughly scrubbed, flushed, and sanitized to eliminate the additives prior to next use.
Additionally, when hydration system users blow into the bite valve it forces a combination of air and fluid back into the reservoir contaminating the hydration system.
One drawback of the use of portable hydration systems is that most often they are developed for use with a single source of water or fluid supply without providing the ability to independently introduce a supplemental solution into the flow of fluids.
The introduction of any beverage other than water may contaminate the reservoir, foul future water fillings and creates the necessity of additional sanitizing procedures for the user of the system.
Heretofore, controlled mixing of the water or fluid supply with supplemental solutions has been cumbersome and often leads to the supplemental solution contaminating the original water or fluid supply. Additionally, the components of the hydration system downstream from the fluid reservoir tend to either be permanently secured together, or else secured together via a tight friction fit that tends to be difficult to establish or release. Both of these structures provide effective fluid tight seals however, neither permits components to be quickly and repeatedly interchanged by the user.
A significant major draw back in the use of hydration systems has been that the introduction of fluids other than water to the fluid reservoir(s) tends to limit the life of the reservoir, increases the risk of contamination, fosters the growth of bacterium, and provides additional challenges to adequately cleanse and re-use the reservoir.
In military field operations and particularly in operations involving nuclear, biologic, and chemical (NBC) exposures and other hazardous environment exposures, thorough cleaning of the hydration system is essential. The typical cleansing procedure, however, is often cumbersome and ineffective. When supplemental solutions have been added to the hydration systems, the task of cleaning becomes exponentially more difficult because the additives have a tendency to settle into various sections of the hydration system and create contamination.
Due the issues presented with putting additives into the hydrations systems and then trying to clear the system of the additives, users are very often limited to the use of a single fluid. Since it's difficult to clean out additives, users sometimes carry multiple separate additive provides which are not connected to the hydration system. For example, a user may have a hydration system which provides water but relies on a separate independent juice pack to obtain flavored juices or vitamin supplements. Further, users often use external mixing containers such a cup to mix the supplement or carry multiple independent fluid and supplement sources as well as the water filled hydration system. This combination of elements creates additional carrying weight and can be awkward to manipulate.
The consumption of water alone is not sufficient to maintain proper electrolyte balance in a demanding and potentially hostile environment. Users clearly need an Inline Fluid Dispenser which can quickly and easily be attached to a hydration system and which allows the user to imbibe a wide selection of substances (such as supplemental electrolytes) without contaminating the hydration system.